One of the reasons we left the Abaco’s when we did was I needed to get to West Palm to fly back to Bentonville for a meeting with one of my clients and Walmart. John and Tracey also needed to get back to Florida to have some work done at Just Catamarans and Leopard.
Not sure what it was about the last few days that we were traveling and our time in West Palm but it was a very active thunderstorm week. Around 10:45 we loaded up in our dinghy, grabbed John and Tracey and headed over to the City Docks to grab a bite to eat and then an Uber over to Publix.
Let me just throw this out there, you don’t go to the Bahamas to eat well., you go there for the most beautiful blue waters, the beaches, and the turtles. The food is outrageously expensive for what you get, then there is the VAT tax added on along with your tip. The food is average, and the main staples are peas n rice, macaroni, and mostly fried protein which is typically some kind of fish. The alcoholic drinks are a minimum of $15.00 and are not that great. Bubba likes a beer with flavor and some umph behind it, the beer selection there is pretty limited. To be back in the US with food selection and foods that had flavor and taste was a most welcomed change from the last five months.
We hopped over to ER Bradley’s for a delicious lunch before grabbing the uber to Publix. The Publix in Palm Beach is super fancy from the outside and loaded with selection on the inside. This is another extravagant experience we had been missing. In the Bahamas the largest grocery store with the most items was found on Marsh Harbor which was towards the end of our trip. While Publix prices are high, they were still not as high as the Bahamas.
We knew an afternoon storm was pending so we quickly did our shopping and grabbed another uber back to the City Dock. This uber driver did not speak any English, like zero, not sure Uber even checks to make sure you are legally in the country. After talking with another Uber driver about the company he probably did not have insurance either. We got back to the boat just in time for the winds to pick up and an afternoon storm rolled through.
The next day, the weather was a lot of the same. Late Saturday afternoon a tornado struck nearby where people and boats were in the water, roofs and cars were reported damaged. I was to fly out of West Palm Beach around 11:00 on Sunday morning. I elected to get up early to get off the boat as the weather was projected to be nasty about the time I needed to leave. It put me getting to the airport about three hours before I needed to but was a smart decision as the sky grew dark, tornado warnings were issued, and it rained hard. This also allowed me to try to get on an earlier flight which would later work to my advantage as flights were delayed due to the storms.
I would make it back to Arkansas on the very last flight of the night, got my rental car and checked into my hotel. The next day was our meeting with Walmart. There was not much for me to prepare for. This meeting was more about insights into the category and how to classify items that were plant based. Our category insights guy was doing the heavy lifting. Walmart is making some risky moves removing plant-based items out of their stores. This puts Publix and Kroger in a position to win big time. Sometimes you can have all of the data in the world but still need to trust your gut. I am pretty sure this decision is going to cost them sales and customers. Also, pretty sure I won’t have a job with them in 90 days either due to the decisions Walmart is making. I have worked with this company for the last 5 years and each year it gets worse as this space gains new competition from companies with deeper pockets.
In the meantime, John and Tracey are keeping Bubba in line. Everyone and anyone know this role is a full-time job.
As I am getting ready to leave the airport to return to West Palm Beach, I get a call from Bubba telling me that his ex-stepdad Skip had passed away the night before. Bubba would need to get back to Arkansas to take care of Skip’s affairs. Now what to do about the boat, the dogs, and our friend James who had planned to visit us in West Palm. As I sat on the plane, I came up with the plan for how to make this all work and for everyone to be safe.
James would fly in on Thursday. He agreed to accompany us on the journey to Brunswick. He has been on boats before but nothing like he was about to experience. Catch the next post about the experience.